Transgender Issues and the Criminal Justice System

Fact Sheets • February 1, 2007

Transgender Issues and the Criminal Justice SystemWhat is “transgender”?The term “transgender” describes people who understand or express their gender differently than what society expects based on the gender they were assigned at birth. This term includes people who change from one gender to another, people who express different gender characteristics, and people whose gender expression cannot be clearly defined as “masculine” or “feminine.”

What is “transition”?Gender transition refers to the process that some transgender people go through in changing from one gender to another. This process can include going by a new name, using a new pronoun, and/or changing appearance. For some people, these changes include using medical care such as
hormone therapy or surgical intervention (which is less common) to masculinize or feminize the body. Others accomplish these changes only by presenting themselves differently.

What should I call a transgender person?Transgender people should always be called by the name they choose, even if their records still say their old name. They should also always be called by the pronoun they want to use. Transgender women should be called “she/her” and transgender men should be called “he/him.”

News

( Sept. 9. 2018,The Guardian) Inmates within America’s overflowing prisons are marking the end of a 19-day national prison strike on Sunday with a new push to regain the vote for up to 6 million Americans who have been stripped of their democratic rights.Read More

Press

Staten Islanders had the opportunity Thursday night to briefly experience one of the hardest parts of our nation’s penal system. A group of advocates brought a makeshift solitary cell to the South Shore YMCA in Eltingville to show people the level of isolation inmates can face. The model was constructed by Doug Van Zandt, of [...]Read More

Advocacy Tools

“Prison Within Prison: Voices of Women Held In Isolated Confinement in New York” is a collection of oral and visual observations from twenty women about their experiences being held in isolated confinement in New York’s women’s prisons and Rikers Island. They are advocates and leaders on a range of issues in the movement to end [...]Read More

Advocacy Tools

WOMEN AND ISOLATED CONFINEMENT Women held in isolated confinement are subjected to dehumanizing treatment—treatment that makes it difficult for them to maintain their dignity, hygiene, nutrition and personal property. They can get in trouble for something as simple as attempting to talk to the person next to them. They are denied commissary privileges which provide [...]Read More